Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe Declares State of Emergency During “Unite the Right” Rally

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - JULY 08: The Ku Klux Klan protests on July 8, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. The KKK is protesting the planned removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, and calling for the protection of Southern Confederate monuments. (Photo by Chet Strange/Getty Images)

Chet Strange

Update (12:20 P.M. August 12): Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe has declared a State of Emergency in response to Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally, which saw white nationalists and KKK members descend on the city to protest immigration reform and the removal of Confederate monuments.

Charlottesville, Virginia’s plan to remove or relocate statues commemorating the Confederacy has been met with a storm of opposition from far-right white nationalists, who gathered on the University of Virginia’s campus Friday night to protest the removal of the statues as well as immigration reform. They wielded lit tiki torches and chanted slogans like “You will not replace us” and “blood and soil,” a racist ethnic nationalist expression popularized by the Nazis during World War II. The protest disbanded after law enforcement arrived and ruled it unlawful assembly, but the city is still on edge preparing for the larger protest downtown Saturday afternoon.

Charlottesville became ground zero for white nationalist protests after the city began rebranding away from Confederate history. The city council voted in April to remove a statue of Southern general Robert E. Lee, and renamed two city parks, one of which, Emancipation Park, was the site of the rally on Friday night. Alt-right activists and Ku Klux Klan members have been descending on the city in recent months. Saturday’s protest is expected to attract as many as 2,000 to 6,000 people, and could be the "largest hate-gathering of its kind in decades in the United States," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (via CNN).

Friday night’s demonstration took place after a federal judge granted an injunction allowing Saturday’s protest—but the protesters were angry that the city had them move almost a mile away from their preferred destination, to McIntire Park.

“While the City is disappointed by tonight’s ruling we will abide by the judge’s decision,” the city said in a statement late Friday. “The goal in moving the Unite the Right Rally from Emancipation Park to a larger, more accommodating space like McIntire Park had nothing to do with the content of the demonstrators’ speech.”

UVA’s Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato tweeted, “In my 47 years of association with @UVA, this was the most nauseating thing I've ever seen. We need an exorcism on the Lawn.”

Charlottesville mayor Mike Signer condemned the rally on his Facebook page Friday night, where he wrote: “Everyone has a right under the First Amendment to express their opinion peaceably, so here's mine: not only as the Mayor of Charlottesville, but as a UVA faculty member and alumnus, I am beyond disgusted by this unsanctioned and despicable display of visual intimidation on a college campus.”